It’s budget day
- Philip Hammond to present budget to the House of Commons at 3.30pm
- Final budget before the UK leaves the EU
- Prime Minister promised the Conservative party conference that austerity had ended – will her chancellor deliver?
Today Philip Hammond delivers the UK’s final budget before it exits the European Union. The chancellor of the exchequer is expected to announce a meek and timid set of spending proposals, but that does not ring true with Theresa May’s pledge to her party conference in October that austerity was over.
So, more Thatcherite cuts or a tax rise to end the endless and needless ideological economics that the Conservative party has inflicted on the UK? Likely neither and somewhere in between.
Keep it here on our live blog to find out: has austerity ended?
4.42pm: Hammond ends his speech by saying austerity is over, having announced nothing during his speech to that effect.
3.48pm: Well he’s said austerity is over, but not actually announced anything to that effect soooo
3.47pm: No, no it’s not
3.45pm: Ooo is it going to end?
2.47pm: 45 minutes to go…
12.00pm: All quiet on the Western front, austerity is not yet over
10.41am: No, it hasn’t
